Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on May 16, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Senator Charles Schumer today introduced the Device Theft Deterrence Act of 2012 (S.3186), which would make it a federal crime to tamper with the unique identification number of a cellphone. The following statement may be attributed to Tim McKone, AT&T Executive Vice President of Federal Relations:
“AT&T applauds Senator Schumer for his efforts to help deter the theft of mobile wireless communications devices. At AT&T, we continue to research and implement measures to address the growing issue of stolen wireless devices. We appreciate the Senator’s efforts to do the same and we look forward to working with him and his colleagues as this legislation moves forward to ensure that customer security and privacy issues are adequately addressed.”
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on May 3, 2012 at 10:56 am
By Jim Bugel, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Public Safety and Homeland Security
This week, we launched our new website to help better educate our customers on protecting their wireless devices and their personal information. You might recall that, just a few weeks ago, we joined our fellow wireless carriers, law enforcement, Senator Schumer and Chairman Genachowski at an FCC event that focused on industry efforts to address the problem of stolen devices.
The new website, which can be found at www.att.com/stolenphone, focuses on the critical importance of passwords – not only to protect the device but the account as well. We encourage our customers to also change their passwords. Often. We also provide guidance on downloading apps that help to protect devices and personal information. We further offer a tutorial on how to back up SIM card contacts. And last, but certainly not least, we provide the steps a customer should take in the event their device is lost or stolen.
Our many efforts to tackle the challenges that stem from the theft of wireless devices are well underway. And our work with the industry as well as governments and the law enforcement community continues. So, stay tuned for more updates as we roll out additional educational tools and materials (and the new database to identify and disable stolen devices) over the coming months.
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Posted by: AT&T Blog Team on April 10, 2012 at 10:35 am
By Jim Bugel, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Public Safety and Homeland Security
The theft of wireless devices is a complicated issue that we take very seriously, which is why we were pleased to join Chairman Genachowski at the FCC’s event today and to be part of CTIA’s announcement on the wireless industry’s efforts to tackle the many challenges concerning stolen devices.
We have been working with carriers, manufacturers, OS providers, governments and law enforcement for some time now on finding a comprehensive solution that helps the law enforcement community do their job but that wireless carriers are able to quickly implement from a technical standpoint.
Building on today’s industry-wide commitment, AT&T will launch a new website designed to better educate our customers on how to protect their device and personal information, and what to do should their device be stolen. We think the new website, which will be up and running in the next few weeks, will be a valuable tool for our customers, as well as for consumers in general.
And to ensure that our customers understand the importance of password protecting their device, we’re going to provide helpful reminders to take this critical step when customers purchase their devices, through subsequent e-mails and text messages, and in bill inserts. And information on apps that help monitor devices, and protect information, will be readily available.
But we won’t stop there.
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